Lisa Radha Weaver | Movers & Shakers 2006

Never Too Busy

While she began in public libraries, Lisa Radha Weaver found her true calling in school librarianship. There were hints, though. As a children’s librarian, Weaver worked with teachers to ‘make the link between schools and public libraries.’ After jumping to schools, she continued forging connections. ‘Pooling our resources made good sense,’ she says, and both groups can share ‘curriculum, book selection, programming knowledge, and ideas.’ With a Bachelor of Education degree, Weaver says she felt ‘compelled to create school and public library connections to serve my community better.’

Now, Weaver serves ever-larger communities, bringing her skills to overseeing ‘the throughput of library resources’ for 570 school libraries. She is proud of not ‘listening to the voice in my head that says, ‘Stay where you are comfortable’ ‘ but going ‘with my heart into new challenges’ – like her 2005 move from the seventh-largest school board in the province to the largest in the country.

And challenges there were! Just after Weaver started her new job, the government added $2 million for collection renewal onto an existing half-million-dollar project. In just one month, Weaver organized two book fairs for 570-plus teachers/librarians to select materials, then worked with a team of students placing orders with 30 different vendors. Janice Kullas, of Oakville Public Library, ON, says, ‘Lisa lives by the motto on her email signature: ‘If you are too busy to have fun, you are too busy.’ ‘

Vitals

Current Position Unit Coordinator, Library Technical Services, Toronto District School BoardDegrees MLIS, University of Western Ontario, 1999; Bachelor of Education, 2001Reader Canadian Book of the Year for Children Award